Barret pinned the man up against the wooden pillar with one beefy arm. His feet were kicking helplessly a good ten inches off the ground. Barret waved his gun-arm erratically as he spoke and the man's eyes followed it, hypnotised.
"I oughta blow your damn head off!" Barret growled. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't."
"Barret," Cid drawled. "Don't you be getting carried away now. Dead Shinra ain't worth shit to nobody."
"Ain't worth shit alive either."
"Let him go. We've got bigger fish to fry."
Reluctantly he released his grip on the spy. He stumbled to the ground and sprinted out of the tent, tripping over a chair as he raced for the door.
"And tell your friend to steer clear of here too," Barret yelled. "Or I'll blow his goddamn head off as well."
"I don't know why you're acting so crazy. No signals in or out, remember? What he knows don't mean jack shit if he can't tell anybody. And two Shinra stooges ain't shit against a whole town of people. No point killing them just for the sake of it."
"I don't like it... Goddamn Shinra sniffing around."
"It's their goddamn show. What did you expect?" Cid took a long pull from his bottle of beer, spilling foam down his oil-stained t-shirt. "Can't expect to be blowing up reactors without running into the fuckers, can you? And they don't know anything. Calm the fuck down."
Cid had a point; Garrison had been overly careful in keeping the actual plans close to his chest. Barret barely knew them himself, and the rest of the town thought they were just organising a protest. When two newcomers had turned up the previous week they'd been treated like outsiders and barely spoken to. It hadn't surprised Barret to learn that they'd been sent in by Shinra.
The bastards already knew he was in North Corel anyway. It seemed a moot point to lie low now.
"I still don't like it." He picked up his own bottle, scratching at the label with his thumbnail. "Don't like any of this shit."
"Just like the good ol' days."
Barret frowned at the bottle in front of him. The bad feeling that had been chasing him for days was getting so heavy it felt as though it would crush him. Marlene was asleep; she'd started crying every night, asking for Tifa. Yuffie had calmed her, stroking her hair and singing her stupid, made-up songs until she'd finally fallen asleep. It'd broken his heart.
As soon as she'd settled Cid had suggested a beer. Yuffie had pointedly told them to go; he suspected she was starting to get sick of his poor mood.
He'd fought long and hard with Vincent and Cloud about bringing Marlene to North Corel. He'd known deep down it was a stupid idea but he was scared and he was hurting, and he'd needed to keep her safe. They'd both said they didn't trust Garrison but what did they know, they'd never met the guy.
Cloud had told him begrudgingly about the photographs. If soldier boy couldn't keep it in his goddamn pants, well that was his own fault; what did it have to do with Garrison? So what if he knew the woman. She probably knew loads of people.
It was just a coincidence.
He wondered how Tifa was. She'd always carried a torch for the merc, and Cloud had always been too goddamn stupid to see it. He imagined getting the photos would've hurt her. He pictured Marlene's tear stained face and his heart sank. He'd hurt Tifa too.
He hadn't meant what he'd said. He'd just been angry. He wanted to apologise but he didn't know how. And then the PHS lines had gone down and his inability to string the sentences together didn't matter anymore. He couldn't have told her even if he'd been able to.
Vincent thought they were under attack. Somebody had gone after the Turks and he'd gotten it into his head that it was somehow connected to the accident. The man was a lunatic; he'd clearly spent too much time by himself. He needed to get out more; thinking was a dangerous game.
A minuscule part of him felt guilty about the Turks too. That little blonde bottle rocket had gotten him back to Edge in hours—a journey that would have taken him days. He owed them for that, although he still didn't understand why they'd helped him. The Turks would always be their enemies, nothing would ever change that.
He took a long pull of his drink.
"Why you getting all up in your own head for?" Cid admonished, kicking him under the table. "Don't you be getting cold feet on me, you hear?"
"I won't."
"Good 'cause I need this. Rocket Town is boring me to tears."
"Think Tifa'll forgive me?"
"I wouldn't," Cid replied levelly. "But she probably will. Heart of gold that one."
"Yeah," he replied glumly.
A shadow at the front of the tent distracted him. Garrison walked in, a rolled up blueprint under his arm. He'd been absent for days; Barret had almost started to wonder whether he'd bottled it and wasn't going to show.
He ambled over, eyes narrowed.
"I hear you've been hanging around with Turks, friend." His tone wasn't friendly.
"Didn't think you was coming back."
"Wouldn't miss this for the world." He dropped the blueprint on the table. "But that's not what I want to talk about."
"Marlene was in an accident."
"Accidents happen all of the time," he growled, eyes narrowed. "I don't see anybody else getting goddamn helicopter rides from Shinra."
"They owed me a favour."
It was only half a lie; he'd helped out with that tricky little situation in Wutai, hadn't he? So what if Yuffie had also gotten her scrawny ass involved. The Turks wouldn't have been able to stop Corneo alone; Elena had owed him big-time. A cross-continental helicopter ride only seemed fair.
"I hate 'em," he continued, voice emphatic. "But my only loyalty is to Marlene and she needed her daddy."
"You be careful Barret," Garrison warned. "A less forgiving man might think you were in the pocket of Rufus Shinra."
Barret stood up, knocking his chair over. It clattered to the floor behind him. He'd already got his gun-arm raised.
"Say that again," he said darkly. "And I'll blow your goddamn brains out."
"Come on now Barret," Cid warned. "Sit your ass back down."
"A man can't be too careful," said Garrison, ignoring the gun was now hovering in his face. "There's traitors in these parts."
"I swear on that little girl's life, I ain't no Shinra spy."
Garrison considered this briefly. "Fine. But if I find out you've double crossed me I'll make sure you feel it."
"Don't you worry your pretty little head." Cid laughed. "I'll help you beat on his goddamn ass myself if I have to."
"Can't blame a man for being jumpy," Garrison took a seat at the table. "There's two of them here already. I saw them poking their noses around where they're not wanted."
"We already caught 'em," Cid replied. "Shinra spies. Barret put the fear of God in them and we let them go. They can't contact anybody anyway. They ain't gonna be any trouble."
"Not the Shinra," he spat. "The goddamn Turks."
"Turks?" Barret picked his chair up and sat back down.
"Little blonde bitch and a man with black hair. I think he's their Director."
"Sounds like it," Barret agreed. "Not like Tseng to be involved. Bastard's usually holed up at Shinra HQ. If he's here we've got trouble on our hands."
"We carry on as planned," Garrison warned. "I've put too much work into this for it to fail now."
"Don't worry," said Barret. "We're gonna blow the shit out of it and they can't stop us."
"And talking of that…" Cid grinned. "What's the plan?"
"Yuffie still in?" Garrison asked.
"Sure is."
"Good." He unrolled the blueprint and spread it on the table. "Got these from my contact in Edge. They're the most up to date copies. Couple of changes from the ones I showed you before but they're mainly the same."
Barret stared at the plans. They took him back to nights spent in the hideout under Seventh Heaven, pouring over blueprints with Biggs, hunting out weak-points and backdoors. The reactor plan looked sickeningly familiar. It didn't look like Shinra had made much effort to change a damn thing, despite their claims that their new reactors wouldn't damage the Planet.
He squinted, trying to read the tiny words. "Mako storage?"
"I told you. They're not building clean reactors," said Garrison. "It's all lies."
The weight on his shoulders lessened slightly. This was important; Shinra had reverted to form and were just as much of a threat as they'd always been. He owed it to the Planet to stop them. He owed it to Marlene.
"There's a cave system in the mountains," Garrison continued, pointing at an entrance hatch on the blueprint. "Brings us up here. Means we can get right into the heart of the reactor without anybody seeing us at all."
"Sounds like a plan," said Cid. "What about guards?"
"They've got a couple at the entrance to the caves but nobody ever goes up there. They won't be expecting trouble."
"We can deal with a couple of guards no problem," said Barret. "What about the explosives?"
"I've got that covered. We've got a remote detonator. Just need to place the bomb and get the hell out of there."
"Nice and easy." Cid grinned.
"We can't get complacent. Something could still go wrong," said Garrison wearily. "Especially with Turks sniffing around. We'll meet at the foot of Mount Corel just before the sun comes up."
Barret slapped the table with his palm. "Shinra won't know what's hit them."